I sincerely wish more games with rich lore involving other mythologies would exist. This game showcases some of the lore revolving around the JttW time period. Would be cool to see more mythos and the similar belief structures inherent with these mythoi of differing cultures. Kind of a "glue that binds us" situation. We are all people, we all want similar things AND the same kind of problems haunt all of us, no matter our origin.
Man, your videos are a breath of fresh air in comparison to other gaming journalists. You're quickly becoming one of my favorite opinions in gaming. Keep doin what you're doin.
Black Myth: Wukong creators went scouring all over China and painstakingly 3D-scanned the architectures, statues, and artifacts from historical sites, relics, temples, and museums, as well as taking inspirations from ancient paintings and murals, to use for developing the game, thanks to the treasure trove of Chinese history and culture. Imagine if more and more developers do something like this, what a blast it would be to explore the treasure trove of history and culture of ancient Egypt, Persia, India, Roman Empire, Greece, Maya civilizations, etc, thru playing a single player game.
Exactly! Imagine if Ubisoft ditched the AC-universe or some other game studio just created like these alternate stories on all sorts of myths or historical characters without sticking to a certain genre or being restricted by a certain universe.
Ubisoft back when they were making Unity, did exactly that. But they failed due to upper management rushing the devs. It's always the upper management's fault
Tell her that many (including myself) find such facial features add some depths that when combined with the other aspects of the game (such as flowing hair dynamics and billowing clothes during the fight and in cut scenes for example) made it more immersive and enjoyable to play. Tell her that these small details really add up, and that her animations was not wasted.
My wife often plays with me on wukong. She gets immersed in the story, jumps with excitement when we defeat a boss, cries during emotional scenes, reads the story behind each monster, gives me fighting tips, and guides me through each map. Is this really what the game is all about?"
@@lafireteamplx3400I’m sorry you feel that way, you’ll understand when you are ready it’s okay take your time. I would just advise that you refrain from making statements on things you don’t fully understand yet. All the best to you and you’re future friend 👋🏽
Elden Ring was a wakeup call Balders Gate 3 was a wakeup call Black Myth Wukong is a wakeup call How many times they gonna hit that snooze button before they get up!
Black Myth Wukong succeeding despite the collective efforts of mainstream video game media trying to put it down is very much like Wukong (the character) achieving immortality many times over despite all of heaven trying to put it down. It's very poetic in that sense.
Wukong is just a well made, Complete game. Single player. Multiple endings. Just like back in the day. Hidden bosses, awesome fun combat, just classic gaming. They put ALOT of work into this game. Presentation 10/10. A masterpiece really.
Can't agree with 10/10 presentation due to a little confusing storytelling when you have no mythology knowledge. Invisible walls also may be irritating often. It's not perfect, but nearly. I'm close to chapter 3 and loving it so far! For me 8-9/10, have to play till end
I mean Im pretty sure thats just the Problem that we are Western people. I think Most of the Chinese Players already know Things about the Journey to the West Story. + If you are really interested in the story you can read it in the Info cards you get throughout the Game. I think If they wouldve just told it normal, the Chinese Players would be bored because they already know much about it^^@@dasarchiv3508
@@dasarchiv3508it is your problem that you don't want to learn the chinese Myth, chinese gamers never complained for not understand Greek Myth in God of war
@@dasarchiv3508 By the same logic, the entire GOW series should lose points because the storytelling is a little confusing to those who are not familiar with Greek mythology and/or Norse mythology. But no, not only players and media will deduct points for that, instead they will try to do research and learn about such culture. It's only when it's from Chinese culture(which is way more ancient and rich in content than most other cultures), it becomes a problem...I wonder why🙄
@@dasarchiv3508someone is telling u that u cut 1or 2 points from 10/10 is ur problem, due to u don’t know the original story. But as a Chinese I don’t feel that it problems. No one can know every knowledge from the entire world. Just ignore other’s opinions and enjoy the game bro. If u like the game and want to know what’s story behind the game, then go to read story maybe, that’s a whole new experience. Just enjoy ur game and enjoy your own passion. Enjoy the GAME and follow ur own heart. I think that’s the true meaning of GAME.
As a gamer from China, I really appreciate youtubers like you express support for Wukong. I'm really glad to see you guys enjoying the culture from my homeland. Your opinion is fair and pertinent, thank you a lot!
Small point of interest and appreciation: New devs making their first big game made better facial animations for both yaoguais and humanoids than multibillionaire Ubisoft's Star Wars Outlaws.
@bazparkes6516 they must have known thst their bs is only going yo be accepted until there is competition. Can you believe wukong only costed 40mil to make ? Now compare that to the latest hot pile of crap ubisoft and shat out.
I usually skip the Lore Journal entries in games but in Black Myth every entry is not an exposition dump, but a short story. Every single enemy has a tale about who they were in life. The days they fell in love, or learned a hard lesson. It humanizes every single foe you've faced in a way I've never seen in a game before. Check them out, fr.
This may be China’s first AAA game, but China has a huge gaming industry and plenty of talent. GameScience as a studio may be new, but its staff are NOT new to the gaming industry. The two creators worked on mobile games at Tencent for a decade, and that’s where they met. They left to make the game of their dreams. So I’m not surprised at all that China’s first AAA game is so amazing.
Yes AAA level games don't just pop out of thin air. You need a certain amount of talent and knowhow developing over a long period of time in order build an industry that is capable of developing a massive complex graphically heavy game such as this. There was many years of the 99% of perspiration to achieve this 1% inspirational type of game. Same deal with Chinese EVs, with westerners seem dumbfounded that "suddenly" the Chinese are building all these high quality extremely competitive EVs at bargain prices. They didn't suddenly do shit, but instead have been building up their automotive industry in general, and EV supply chain in particular for almost 20 years now. No actual good product springs out of nowhere. You need to lay the foundation to make that good product, which takes time and effort, often not noticed for years until the good results begin to show.
I don't want to sound corny, but this is a "brave" video review. I am Chinese American, grew up right here in the US. I play both American and Chinese games. It's more apparent to my demographic because obviously we live it. The bias against any Chinese content from western media is constant. And it is in all facets, not just gaming. Just look at the Chinese characters in American entertainment, think about who they choose to cast and what kind of message they try to send with those choices of casting. But I digress. Back to why this is "brave". A lot of my non-Asian friends feel the same way about the "diversity" stuff, about the bias against China. But none of them really speak about it publicly because well... A) it doesn't affect them, and B) they don't want to risk their jobs. And I'm not angry about it, I totally understand. You're saying all of the quiet parts out loud though. So bravo.
Look at how they(the anglo old money oligarchs ruled "collective West") portrayed Soviet culture or Russian characters in the past. You will understand everything. The entertainment industry is not neutral in any power game.
"Diversity" is just another name for opposition. Most of the more extreme "diversity" champions are not championing for fairness. They are championing for their "turn at superiority" because they feel they are unfairly treated by the "superior class".
We are not thinking about China man. Only you make this about China. China in the real world is not China from these games anyway. It's like saying people make Roman content when they create a French or Spanish world in a game. Completely stupid. Same with Total War Three Kingdoms. People aren't thinking about CCP China once and why should they? You know what I find the richest about your comment? That you call out western media but China is the first and foremost perpetrator of destroying Chinese image across the globe. BTW. This publisher is headquartered in China. It's not even an American game lmao. Aight.
@@yestomor7673 bad media is bad media, nothing about the characters would change that. If you're so hung up on being portrayed poorly because of some low budget slop, then that's your own fault.
As a Chinese, I got teary-eyed towards the end of this video. Just because I feel that you really got how we, grown up listening to the tales of Journey to the West, felt playing this game.As you said, this game really reached over the cultural iron curtain and reminded us that deep down we are all alike.
This game got me so interested in Chinese’s mythology. I even started reading Anthony C. Yu’s translation of Journey to the West after playing the game!
@@YNWA6times th-cam.com/video/Hu0XosgxCyU/w-d-xo.htmlsi=fvseZrJ1EMnAZEX1 Sun Wukong makes a big fuss in the Heavenly Palace, and you will know how powerful Wukong is. this is a very good old animation.
@@YNWA6times Uproar in Heaven: Wukong makes a big fuss in the Heavenly Palace, and you will know how powerful Wukong is. This is a very good old animation.
This video is quite literally what I have been feeling for the last few days, and I felt like I was going crazy cos no content creator or reviewer has expressed similar sentiment in such a elegant way. Great work.
Welcome to being Chinese/Chinese-American. Think how you're feeling like you were going crazy over game reviews? This is how it is with everything else for us, work, school, everything. Just random insane bias.
In the cave at 6:12, there are 12 statues depicting the 12 Chinese zodiacs. I took 5 minutes to appreciate them but was never able to find the monkey. It just now clicked with me that YOU were the monkey that broke off from the statue. We don't know why or how the destined one got there, but that's such a cool way to start off the chapter.
the statue the little monk turned into (exactly that small one at 6:12) is robbed away and currently in the british museum. the scene was shot specifically in that way to send a message, to say:" I wanna go back to china!" as he looked at all his mates whose statues are preserved in china.
Thank you for this video. I'm a rookie game dev working for some studios both big and small in my country and they never let me go beyond the proven data, the "worked games", always clone this, clone that. I've been drained to the point of wanting to go back to product dev, but after picking up Wukong I was reminded of all the beautiful games that brought me into this industry in the first place. The desire to make games with player's experience at the heart isn't wrong at all.
The different animation styles blew me away. Hand drawn 2d, stop motion... amazing seriously. A beautiful reward for finishing a chapter. China came out swinging with their first AAA game.
@@yangliu3107 the last one called 'unfinished' got me pumped up it wasn't sad really. it played the story of jttw in reverse as wukong regains all his memories. beautifully animated.
I loaded up the game and played for an hour this morning, approaching the Whiteclad Noble, and got as far as upgrading the health gourd, then closed it out to take a break. Then I tried to pull up a web browser, learning I'd been offline the entire time. This actually brought a smile to my face, one of the countless smiles Black Myth Wukong has given me in the last few days. Thanks for the great content LD!
I've been gaming for 45 years. Been there, done that is an understatement. Elden Ring was excellent, DLC excellent. God of War and Ragnarok, brilliant. Black Myth:Wukong is another level *above* these most vaunted titles. I just hit Chapter 2 and the challenge is savage (I'm 57, give me a break!) but not unfair. Repeated attempts at Boss fights will see victory eventually. Tha aesthetic, the armor and weapon upgrade systems - incredible. You *do* feel you're getting incrementally more powerful as you defeat more sections of the game but you have to EARN it. Black Myth: Wukong is an absolute masterpiece IMHO. I'll be more than happy to do NG+++ to see everything.
Hey I'm 40 years old and when I was fighting Yin Tiger I was questioning myself if I still had the reflexes I used to when I was younger. It's bs, we are just as capable today as we were when we were young so don't let that get to you, I'm currently on chapter 5 right now and loving every second of this game. The varied environments, massive enemy variety, and combat. All top tier!
I totally get the point about how online games can take over a player’s time so demandingly. The competition in online games feels like a battle where it’s all or nothing - if you’re spending all your energy and money there, you miss out on trying other games for a long while. You might get stuck on one game unless you somehow snap out of it and decide to change things up. On the other hand, single-player games feel a bit more chill. You can enjoy a full, satisfying experience in less time, which leaves you free to try out new stuff.
100%, I'm from Malaysia, we also grow up watching the TV show Journey to The West. Iconic TV shows. It's soo crazy how old that show now, if you try and watch it today it felt soo weirdly out of place, but back then it was one of the top TV show. But My favorite back then was Condor Heroes series(Liu Yi Fei was my childhood crush, lol) and The Storm Riders/The Storm Warriors film. This just make me wanna watch it all again, except the Journey to the West, that show was too old it's hard to watch now, I hope they remake it properly now, not like those new movies adaptations they made, which pretty far from the real lore.
@@trumplostlol3007 They had to create a different "Sequel" to JTTW which is non existed to begin with to have more creative freedom for a game while not straying too far from the lore. BMW story started after JTTW stories entirely ended. So technically they never really touched or changed the original story which is to me a genius move.
Spot on observation and argument!! I’m a 58 year old gamer since 1980 Apple ][ era. Black Myth WuKomg (BMWK) brings back the great gaming experience and originality I have experienced during 1980-1998 era of awesome design of all kinds of game designs. Gamers just want to play great games, period.
Every time journalists try to cancel a game, it sells tens of millions of copies. Every time gamers ignore a game, it's down to 60 concurrent players. Is it a "wake up call" if they keep burying their heads in the sand? The cancel mob managed to piss off 4Chan over Hogwarts Legacy. 4Chan never forgets.
@@f.o.8547 Is what he call Bandai now, because they embrace DEI ideas hard, they even change their logo to represent that, I didn't see the new logo yet.
@@DarkHeartTheEmo bandai namco still releases decent games though? I'm all for anti-DEI, but there are many examples of companies that got rotten by DEI and bandai is not one of them yet (edit: in terms of the quality of games released).
This was the epitome of diversity, the opposite of the controversy. This made me genuinely incredibly interested in Chinese mythology and got me to read the Journey to the West. This is how you get people interested in other cultures. Do it naturally, so it doesn’t feel forced or condescending, and just tell a good story. People will genuinely love it and gravitate to it.
Wukong is Game of The Year 2024😎💯I’m 80 hours into the game and basically I’m only near the beginning of chapter 4 so this game has quality and quantity no doubt it’s one of the greatest, and most complete single player game’s in a very long time without any extra hidden costs or micro transactions, and We got the full Game day 1 at launch💯
I swear I could’ve gotten this game for free from my friends account but I bought it just to support this amazing game and to show that we need more games like this
lmao these replies are gold. Best described as Schrödinger's game journalists : Both asleep and woke at the same time. You won't find out until you poke them.
Game development cycle is 3 to 6 years. If Elden ring was the wake up call, we would have only been seeing new AAA single player game commitments at the beginning of next year lol.
Black Myth is not perfect. But I support Game Science still, because every little details in the game tell me one thing: they love games！A startup studio which invest 7 yrs and millions dollars without any undertaker, is already a myth. The game is an adventure for me. And the development journey of this game itself is one incredible adventure for them. Respect
On the other hand, I am extremely tired of those god damn open world games. I really liked Elden Ring, but not because it was open world. It just happened to feel like a 4th Dark Souls game, which is my favorite trilogy of all time in gaming. Good level design is so much more cool/enjoyable to me. Like Undead Burg and nearby areas that are tied together so fantastic in DS1. I say no more open world games. I lost hope in EA long time ago anyways. Now FromSoft is my favorite game creator. I trust in smaller game companies, preferably Asian game developers (I know FromSoft aren't small anymore but they still deliver) to take over the gaming market. Because they aren't forcing PC and woke propaganda down my throat. Black Myth Wukong is a great example of game developers actually understanding the market, and creates games with soul and love. EA, Ubisoft, Blizzard, Activision and Sony are only in it for the money, checking boxes and to force PC propaganda onto their players. And it shows in their games. Because they are terrible. Concorde is a great example of a woke experiment gone wrong and I'm happy that it failed so colossally. Best thing to happen all year. Shows how little people care about pronouns and how much people care about cool character design, story and games not being endless and instead have good map design.
As a Chinese player grow up with the childhood memory in full of the journey to the west. I feel exactly the same touching and conclusion of this game. This is a journey to all the players. a Chinese type of romance.
Yes, I feel the same way as a person who is of chinese descent but wasnt born in china. There are so many memories attached to journey to the west. My father told me these stories as a child as a bedtime story and I cried when I saw the trailer!
@@Facts..Checker the difference with tic toc was that its actually being used by the CCP to harvest your data and destroy the youth of the west. tic tok in china is educational and doesn't tell you to eat detergent.
There's something more sinister at play here. I heard rumors the US government wants to ban this game because it's increasing China's Soft Power and changing perceptions.
@@oriandthesleepytime wukong was born from stone - no gender There was a whole women country in Journey to the west with female king, soldiers, general, prime minister - feminism Wukong is vegetarian Men getting pregnant after drinking from pregnancy well Variety? Fox, rat, monkey, human, scorpion, spider, demon, gods, different races along the journey and more
On my first NG+ experience and couldn't be happier. I want nothing to do with the US "AAAA" market, other than to watch it melt down. Also, your point on the mediation spots couldn't be more spot on. I remember my experience of playing Uncharted 2, which was one of the best experiences in video gaming. You get through some insane sequences (buildings collapsing with you in them, a train sequence with helicopters, tanks, and a derailment, etc...), then ultimately wake up in a peaceful village with nothing to do but exhale. Those devs really knew how to spin a tale, and I feel the same with BMW. This review is so thorough, so scathing against the journalists, and well done, I wish I could give it a second LIKE. Well done sir, and subscribed.
I bought wukong last Thursday and did not wanna put it down at all, over the weekend. My 8YO son (gamer too)is grounded for 2weeks and has been sitting with me everyday after work and watching me play and trying boss fights when I need a small break. Even he's loving it and thinks it's awesome. I can't wait to get off work this evening and play all weekend again, luckily I have 3day weekends every weekend,and now a 4 day with labor day on Monday(also my bday😅) so Im in for a treat this weekend. There's only a few games like this that have came out in the past few years that have me this locked in. Vote with your wallets gamers, we have the power to change the industry for the better if we just have a bit more self control!!✊ Edit: I beat erlang today, and my 8YO beat the final boss of the story. Such a proud father rn.😅😂
You've summarised everything perfectly. It's the biases and institutionalised, invested interests that continuously perplex and puzzle us. As gamers, we just want to game, not pay subscription fees (or any extras), play politics or solve mind games. It's so simple, and yet somehow we've turned every industry into a giant cash grab or a social puzzle. I truly believe that as we move forwards, authenticity will come back again, but we need more messengers like you to spread the word.
I'm not PC, but the media's treatment of Black Myth Wukong and even FromSoft when Elden Ring first came out felt actually kinda racist. Like racism for me is when you speak on a culture without studying it and you have a clear agenda.
I've often said the people who scream the most about racism and equality are often the MOST racist and the people who want the least equality. It gives them an avenue to yell at others and seek power over them, instead of facing their own demons.
It’s beyond blatant racism. Even now mainstream media like the BBC and NYT quite literally cannot report facts of its success without adding mention of fabricated “controversies” to headlines. 0 chance of them doing that for a white man made game.
A large part of Black Myth Wukong's success attribute to its script. Journey to the West is a masterpiece written hundreds of years ago. What you have experienced, the characters, the plots, story lines, etc are cultivated long time ago(imagine the life in hundreds of years ago could be.) Thanks to modern technology we are now able to capture the vivid and splendid imagination that the past used to be, and it would be a pity if you don't play it because it is not just a simple game, but a masterpiece. It will give you a window to see through the history, and learn more about the other side of the world, and Chinese culture.
As a Chinese who moved to Canada since 2005 and lived there for almost 20 years, I'm so happy about the success of Wukong. I felt it was always such a shame that we couldn't share our true culture with the western audience due to many factors. I remember watching a streamer starting the opening scene and said something like: "wow Wukong is just like Goku, so many inspirations from Goku and Naruto (pluck of many)" It was a complicated feeling when I heard it. I don't blame the streamer because it's on us to share our culture, I just wish we had the capabilities to deliver our culture earlier. On the other hand, I'm happy that more people now know about Wukong and how he inspired many awesome works from the east. Won't go into the details of the politics part. Just think how most feel about China and imagine, could some of the main stream media's journalists also acting like IGN?
I am Vietnamese, and most Vietnamese love Journey to the West, we grow watching them every summer. We are probably one of nation that's watch alot of China and Hongkong movies and music
It's mostly China's fault for not sharing its culture. China has been extremely insular since the communist takeover, bordering North Korea levels until the 2000s. China still does not export much of its culture. Black Myth Wukong might legitimately be one of the largest exports of Chinese culture in history. China has simply never exported its culture in such a way before this game. What the west knows about Chinese culture mainly comes from Hong Kong entering hollywood, like Jackie Chan movies. Since the Chinese kept their culture a secret, of course nobody's gonna know it.
It's been so much fun playing this game, I feel like I'm being challenged for the right reasons and not just normal mindless grind. Every boss fight is a challenge that I can overcome after learning their patterns. And it's varied enough so that the boss fights don't feel like a grind themselves. You know what the best part is? No in game store. I log in, I play, I enjoy, I fuck off when I get stuck and come back to it accepting the challenge willingly. There are no words I can say that can describe how much needed this game was.
I grabbed this game to play on my quest 3 to hilite my new vr headset. After watching you I'm actually looking forward to playing it now. I'm an old gamer from the 90 s who had pretty much given up on studios who have focused on profits rather then production values in the recent past. You are a breath of fresh air keep going brother.
I only play single player games, and I'll always be a single player gamer. It makes me so happy to see millions of gamers having a total blast. No one is holding your hand. No one is helping you. When you beat a game, you kicked that games ass, and that was 100% YOU! Nothing feels better.
I dont see a lot people talk about it but every enemy has a short lore behind them and also a Chinese paint style splash art. Reading those stories was also a very fun experience for me. Not to mention some of the boss's story hints the story/hidden bosses.
And some bosses, characters, have whole lore and mythology for them - especially like Nezha and Erlang, they have their own lore, myth (that there are actual people worship them), novels, tv adaptions, etc....
I wanted to write that this video really touched my heart. I listened to the whole thing and it flew by- I was so so so emotional hearing you speak so strongly and with such heart. I had no clue the western media and journalists fabricated so much. You had great points about focusing on the game, and nothing else. This is the first video from you I've seen, but I must agree, this has to be one of the best. It is definitely one of the best things I have heard recently. Thank you. I loved listening to you talk about my culture. Thank you so much
My 2cents -- The AAA gaming industry needs a major overhaul. There are way too many execs, journos, and devs that are cancerous for the industry. Publicly blaming gamers is idiotic. It's simple economics: create what people want to buy or face going out of business.
This game has *80+ unique bosses* btw. To put that into perspective, Elden Ring only has about 50 unique bosses, since so many of them are repeated. That's insane, and most of those 80 bosses are actually _good_ , some are even amazing. Give me a proper gauntlet with remixed bosses in an update like Sekiro did and I can play this for hundreds of hours.
the tiger boss was actually made by capturing hundreds of hours of cats in motion. People were complaining about its unpredictability, but actually the Wukong devs already had to exclude a lot of motion capture footage because real life cats are that unpredictable.
I didn't expect AAA game this damn good from new Chinese studio. It deserves my GOTY award. AAA game is no longer from western or Japan only. I anticipate more of such exceptionally better games from China.
And they weren't even an AAA studio, they've never made a PC game before, and now they adopt all those new technologies and made the best looking game in business while fairly optomized too, mind-blowing. It's like how CDproject red with Witcher 3 but even MORE impressive
I hope more devs in China follow in Game Science's footsteps. If they do, they can really turn this ship around and end wokeness in the industry. I just love how you can feel their passion for this game and worked harder than studios several times the size of Game Science.
I have never bought a game that costs more than $20-30, that means I usually buy older titles. But I'm gonna buy this one this month. This looks stunning and I miss good single player games.
I'm glad that Black Myth Wukong is a success because some of the characters in this game have their own entire lore ready to be made into a beauty of a game like this one. A good example would be Erlang (The 3 eyes god) and Nezha (the kid god flying on fiery wheels in Bull King's flashback).
An old Chinese poem seems especially appropriate. 兩岸猿聲啼不住,輕舟已過萬重山 A literal translation goes... The apes on the riverbank barks in vain, the nimble raft sails true past ten thousand mountains. Pay no heed to the noise and stay on course. I wish more people do this.
Early Departure from the City of Baidi (Li Bai) At dawn I take leave from Baidi amidst the rosy clouds, A thousand li* to Jiangling - I will arrive in one day, Apes call out unceasingly from both shores, My light boat has already passed through ten-thousand layers of mountains.
I’ve been a gamer for 40 years now. I can’t even begin to count the number of games I’ve bought and played, from Super Zaxxon, Uridium, Karateka, R-Type, Wolfenstein, X-Wing, Doom to Half-Life, Tomb Raider, Skyrim, Far Cry, Uncharted, Dark Souls, Nier Automata, Silent Hill, and so many others. There were countless games that I loved. But now, I find myself desperately searching for games that resonate with me. I’m looking for those great SP experiences, with a unique story, a solid beginning, a real ending, and with a nice challenge between-without microtransactions, NFTs, battle passes, or pay-to-win s**t. There are still a few, recently like Elden Ring, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Stellar Blade, but they’re becoming increasingly rare. Most of the games in the genres I once loved are now coming from small indie studios. Meanwhile, the AAA companies keep churning out the same formulaic games over and over-like the endless Assassin’s Creed XXX-. I started to think, maybe it’s just me getting older, and that the industry is now catering to a younger audience with different tastes. But seeing the success of a game that perfectly captures the essence of a great single-player experience over all those fast-food, self-proclaimed AAA products gives me a glimmer of hope, that I am not the only one with my wish for more games like that.
Feng Ji (the leader and founder of game science) also talked about something similar. He is warried that he is too old to attract the young Chinese players. Then in 2018 the first promotional video (PV) of Black Myth: Wukong set the Chinese internet on fire, bringing millions of followers to his personal weibo (chinese twitter) account. And Fengji own this to the severe aging population trend in China during a interview. Well for me that the excellent sense, music, story and bosses would attract every player no matter how old they are. I agree with Legendary Drops that a good game is the art first. For me Blackmyth Wukong is the art created by 140 passionate gaming professionals in Game science. Yang Qi (another founder and the art director of game science ) said both he and Feng Ji are tired of thoese live service game and that is why they left Tencent and develop Game Science. However, they decided to start with some mobile games because of the limitation of both founding and stiduo size. Yang qi said he is unsatisfied with his first/second mobile games and he said he could never make a great game if he do not like (the type of) game in the begining. The changing happened in 2018 when one day Yang Qi found the decline of his physical fitness and attention and he felt that if he did not start right now, he might never has enough power for creating the game he want. I feel Yang Qi, Feng ji and the whole team of Game Science regard Blackmyth Wukong as not only a work but also their dream, and that is how this new stido, started with 40 members (and finally around 140 in 2024) without any experience of 3A games did finally show us, especially Chinese players like me, such an impressing MIRACLE. Arts are created by the one who loves their work, not the business elites who only cares bout the stock prices in the office. By the way just want to said I am so disappointing to the Blizzard and I hope Kotick all the best.
I recommend Sleeping Dogs. Basically True Crime: Hong Kong, but rebranded because of marketing. A VERY good GTA clone that became a sleeper hit (pun intended) and cult classic after release. Word of mouth got it more popular over the years, but it was released by Square Enix around the time of Just Cause (3?) and Tomb Raider reboot so it went under the radar.
All the "games journalists" trying to smear the game and gaslight people into not buying it, only for the game to surpass even Elden Ring, was my favorite aspect of it. If this didn't show how irrelevant they are, I don't know what will.
@@MisterNightfish pretty sure it hasn't surpassed elden ring And its not even comparable elden ring is a open world soulslike with god tier graphics gameplay and voice acting,wukong's voice acting is okey ig and story is kinda meh,gameplay is god tier and the amount of bosses makes it really unique and fun,but I think you can tell elden ring dlc is a closer resemblance Not to belittle it comparing it to elden ring dlc and not saying its bad in anyway,my favorite boss is in the dlc
@@ididntaskverified3663 Im guessing you mean peak player count and not all time because naturally black myth wukong will get more players because of so many people getting introduced to the soulborne genre
@@yol_n it makes the exploring opportunities more so take it as you may but more exploring makes better game. Hard to prove me wrong because wukong isn't completely linear there are side quest that are MASSIVE and that only contributes to the point im trying to make,no completely linear game will make it in the top 10 of games because then your basically doing the same thing over and over while watching a movie
Oh btw Wukong is also on WeGame in China and that is not shown in Steam and you can only get a WeGame account if you live in China. Thus the actual player count is even higher than that of Steam and consoles.
I think this game could possibly end up selling 25 mil copies if not more in one year's time, which took CP2077 three years to reach that number, according to Gamalytic and VG Insights, GS had approximately sold 10 mil in 4 days, and 15 mil copies in 10 days since launched.
@@yumayums Nah this is literally false given that most steam games are not available in china and Steam's Concurrent players only topped 37 Million. So no 95% of china DOES NOT use steam. More of China plays Valorant and League of legends than they do games on steam and those games are not on steam
@@Mr.Genesis You'd be surprised how many things are not available in China but you can find them easily in China XD. Whenever it comes to picking between wegame and steam they always go for steam for a much better user friendly experience.
Video game devs don't even play games anymore. The industry has been fully corporatized and now only a select few studios actually care about making games that are fun rather than making games that they believe, often wrongly, will make them constant revenue.
I know and the worst part is, I can't even blame the workers because it's the culture in many modern day studios that has led to many talented people getting burned out. When you turn up to a metric obsessed, story-point driven nightmare where the quality of your work only just needs to pass QA, but your timesheets better be on point, your admin must be 100% up to date at all times regardless of how much time is wasted doing so & dont you ever log more hours than the allocated amount on your ticket, it's hard to do much more than clock in... Because that's all that management care about until it's too late. Shouting into the wind here though, you'd be surprised how many of us have rung this alarm bell for years at this point and not one shred of care was given. It's an investor-first, quality-second industry now.
@@mchonkler7225 This is a mostly a lie but yet very true to certain people. Depends on the studios. Many Directors and studios encourages their employees to play variety of games. Many even at these corporatised studios do too. It’s in developers and artists best interest to see what’s going on in the industry, whether it’s encouraged by employers or not. The studios I imagine you have issue with do have many talented people that play games but those ideas don’t pass through higher ups (Certainly the case with Bethesda) or are not given away to them. Either the directors/Leads are good enough to successfully create a vision or the development is a collaborative effort like the case of Baldurs Gate 3.
It's a story about a Chinese Monk, a monkey, a pig and a former Space Marine going to The library to borrow some books, how much more diverse can you get?
If I wasn't already going to get it, your take on it would have sealed the deal. I've seen enough of your videos to get the impression you really do play games for the fun, and you aren't afraid to be critical of the things you really love. I think channels like yours are literally the future of gaming journalism.
The game features -no repetitive bosses -poetry to describe characters (when was the last time u saw poetry as character description) - complete game . No dlc or micro transactions - back tracking and upgrades - beautiful art design - ability to turn into enemies (even get their attacks) - scale of enemies increase with progress - chapter endings have moral tales in unique animation styles - beautiful music - multiple endings - 40 hours of gameplay -new game plus with all your upgrades attached .
I think almost all western content creators I've seen play the game actually enjoy it a lot. Makes you think if those journalists even finished the intro lol
@@EsKaioS if you meant the game journalist, we already know they are a clownfest, there's literally 0 input from them that can be considered not biased
The game took a wonderfully creative spins to Zhu Bajie, one of the JTW's most beloved characters: -Made him super cute. My mom, who's completely disinterested in video games, commented on the "cute piggy." I want Bajie figurines on my desk -Gave him an awesome story and flashy action sequences -Tons of unique animations, voice lines, and interactive options to build exposition and an emotional bond with the player -MVP support in normal gameplay -Most importantly, *he stayed true to his persona from JTW* This is how you keep your core audience and engage with newer players. A++ effort, well done!
chapter 4 struck me, the love between a pig and a spider, that takes "inclusivity" on a whole 'nother' level, but hey, apparently not the type of "inclusivity" the gaming journalists are looking for. /shrug
@@EduruChan Reincarnating into a pig wasn't his punishment, his punishment was to suffer a love tragedy through 1000 lifetimes, whenever he died from one of his reincarnations he would regain clarity and remember everything from his past lives. He was too traumatized at one point and couldn't bear with it anymore and tried to run away but he fell into the wrong reincarnation cycle and ended up a pig.
*spoiler alert* If you revisit the the area after clearing the game, you will find the spider lady's grave and a celestial pill that was kept in a treasure box. The pill is used to revive someone, supposedly the pig left the pill there so he can revive his love after everything's over.
Well actually the love story between Zhu Bajie and the spider in Chapter 4 has sparked significant controversy among Chinese players because their love has never been explicitly mentioned in Journey to the West. By the way there is another interesting thing that one pig ( 一只猪， yi zhi zhu) has the same pronunciation with one spider ( 一蜘蛛, yi zhi zhu) in oral Chinese and maybe that's why game science investigate the love stody between them
I loved the singing headless monk in Chapter 2. It was so immersive and he always came at the best and unexpected moments, further adding to the mystery of who he was. I was pleasantly surprised to find out at the end of the chapter!
His head is in the British museum. So I don't care if the game was "CCP funded" or "CCP is forcing people to buy the game". If its popularity raises awareness about history and potentially even leads to the return of looted artifacts, then they have all the reason for such funding.
@@motherflerkentannhauser8152 and they hinted af, Lingji Budda aka the headless got a Scottish accent in the English version of the game, if you know the history, you know who he is at the very beginning.
@@motherflerkentannhauser8152 Yes, the CCP forces people to buy the game. In order to make people play the game, the CCP even gave each player an RTX4090🤣
I absolutely love this game. I can't get enough of the visual art. It definitely is a mashup of games that we like and that have done well but there's something about it. This game pulls you in and makes you feel like it's just YOU and the GAME. Real old school. It's not an online smorgasbord of microtransactions. It's not an online store. I hope the west learns something from this but I'm sure they won't.
It's so interesting to see this game not be dumbed down and just tell the story for its intended local Chinese audience, and yet be appealing to an international audience. Even if many people are unfamiliar and probably a little confused at first, the slowly unravelling plot opens up like a traditional Chinese scroll and you eventually understand what is happening. I think the players can feel the passion and attention to detail on display. This reminds of the old days of great Hollywood movies, where it is intended for the American audience. Even though it is culturally specific, the acting, directing, production and script are so well crafted that it ends up being universally appreciated. Stop pandering to things other than the final product itself. DEVELOPERS： ake the best game you can, something that you'd want to play yourselves and you'll definitely have an audience.
If anything, what it does is encouraging a talk about what these scenes actually meant. You got people who are familiar with Journey to the West explaining the backstory to those who weren’t familiar via TH-cam videos, comments in TH-cam videos, social media, etc. A good discussion and sharing of a foreign culture is happening right now. This is a good thing.
Just wait for 4kids to come back from the dead to dub Black Myth Wukong "Come on Jake Wukong, let's go fight Zoe Bailey and grab some burgers afterwards!"
Creators of these games are genuinely amazing they didn’t care about anything but making their game the best they absolutely could and they even refused changing stuff just because others wanted it 😭🙏it’s honestly worth every penny and the time it took to be released
As a Chinese video gamer, I would say plenty of our native players do not care whether BMW could get the GOTY or not anymore. GOTY is just like the “kasaya”that Master Jinchi chased for. If Game Science has to “bereft of that kasaya” to prove themselves, that’s just another meaningless and pathetic story. Fyi the game got 15.5m copied sold so far, we gamers know what we actually need.
To put it simply, it means returning to what a game should be like, "fun", telling a touching story to the best of your ability on the basis of fun, and then using the scene to recreate the world you imagine
Wukong succeeds because it doesn't try to be something it's not. It's a good game, well polished, with a lot of content to enjoy. There's no agenda involved. It tells a story, sticks to the story, and doesn't bend things to include something that isn't natural to the setting. Of course the absolute lack of macro transactions and the other bullshit is an enormous plus. It looks good. It plays good. That's all that matters.
The headless singing spirit was pretty much my favorite NPC in the whole game. Amazing idea of them to have a character like that with super catchy tunes.
You would think a character that's headless would be beyond woke criticism: no gender, race, cultural, etc issues. But it didn't get any cookie points from the woke brigade who criticise everything.
@@johnnyloh442 Actually, he can. Singing primarily starts from the stomach up through the larynx. Granted, he won’t be able to pronounce words; but he can adapt and make sounds. There’s no one way of singing and if you can make sounds, you are effectively singing.
Yes, if you are an obedient sexual partner who fulfills all their desires and does the chores and cooking, then "stop asian hate", but if you seek equal right of working and education, merit-base admission of universities, you are canceled.
@@satyendra_shah what does that have to do with anything nobody cares if you're a man or woman, non Asians hate Asians. what does "being obedient and sexual" have to do with anything
Starting playing this one I had my doubts. It shared a number of similarities to a Souls-like, but not quite. I was getting TRASHED! As I continued on though I started to get good. I began to level. I began to learn my moves and strengths and weaknesses. I learned HOW to level. This is no button masher. The in between chapter stories being in different mediums is brilliant! Truly a masterpiece so far (3 chapters in) with no sign of bottoming out or dropping the ball.
Dog when I defeated the black bear and saw that hand drawn animation I was flabbergasted cause of how beautiful it was plus the best example of the black myth experience is that forest level You start off dealing with wolves and then boom giant baby man like bro what 😂
This game proves what is possible for the Chinese game industry, 1.3 Billion people and this is the first big single player game cuz they always focused on microtransactions to maximize profit. It’ll probably start a trend of big single player projects out of China
Funny thing is, Black Myth: Wukong is also a window into Indian mythology. Many theorise that the character of Wukong in the original myth was inspired by the Hindu monkey god, Hanuman. In Hindu mythology Hanuman is considered to be an avatar(incarnation) of Lord Shiva. Near the Melon Fields shrine in the game you can hear Shiva strotram playing in the background score. There's also the Mahavira Hall Shrine. Hanuman is also called Mahavir bikram bajrangi.
Yes of course. Chinese researchers did actually contribute Hanuman as the inspiration of Sun Wukong. And as we all know Journey to the West is about a group of monks going to India to study Buddhism, based on the real life story of Monk Xuan Zang who brought sutras back to Tang China and translated them until he died.
Even though I’ve never put stock in game awards, if this game doesn’t win best art direction solely based on those pre chapter cutscenes alone, it’ll show how out completely corrupt they are. The fact they’re all done in a different style and so beautiful/engaging just shows how talented the ppl in that studio are
Thank you for your intelligent, thoughtful, and passionate examinations of issues with Games, Gaming, and the worlds connected to it. So many times I've been assaulted by temper-tantrum emotional melt-downs that delivered their biases about a game, or game-mechanic without using a single full cogent sentence. Ever seen a 6 or 7 year old have a tantrum, basically just loose it because they were overwhelmed by their feelings? Made worse by a lack of being able to communicate WHY they're upset. Yeah, its not pretty at all, and these TH-cam/TicTok videos are made by adults who somehow feel entitled enough to win their "arguments" through sheer volume, and force of will. That is NOT passion. You examine carefully why something is presented as it is (in this case games!), and look for relevance thoughtfully. Wow! What a difference using brain cells make! Please keep using that powerful mind, keep examining these many topics that you cover so well. Its appreciated!
This game is made with a huge amount of love and passion. So glad they transcend language and culture barriers. Also if you get to the hidden/true ending, and go over (and over) the story in your mind, you'll find what this game is really trying to tell. Many of the acts in the story will start looking questionable. That begs more thinking. Believe me they are like that for very good reasons. Same thing the original novel just many don't get it. Again, it's something resonates in most human hearts regardless of skin colour or body weight.
The whole game is itself a Journey. A player rushing through the game story is just like Wukong riding his cloud and flying west to Buddha, he hasn't learned much from the journey and is doomed to repeat the mistakes of his past (bad ending). The True ending requires you to beat bosses that are not on the main path, go back to certain area that you couldn't access previously, win an epic battle and then go through all the story. If you rush through the story, you will miss out on this tough but satisfying epic battle and also the understanding of the events that happened.
I started to feel playing game doesn't feel the same anymore, felt like the spark for gaming is going out, but Black Myth Wukong ignited my thirst for gaming again. This is the kind of game we need in the future!
Thanks. I’m so glad to watch your video and hear what you said. I live in Shanxi, and 29 scenes ( backgrounds, like the temples, Buddha, pagoda) of the game was shot from my province. I am very proud of that too. They did it nicely! ❤
no offense guys,the fact is China has over 5000 years history, the journey to the west is just a tip of the iceberg, after the success of wukong, there gonna be more games coming out that based on Chinese culture.
I don't mean to say that Asian developers are superior to Western developers in terms of creativity and techniques. The biggest lesson is the corrupt business model of "modern gaming" - live service, early access, you name it. True "final products" like Black Myth: Wukong and Elden Ring are rare. What else can you name? What about the $130 "Star Wars Outlaws"? That's it - the West keeps lowering the standard for final products, while Game Science delivered a real finished game. Learn it Ubisoft , would you?! Such a Shame.
Many thanks - enjoyed your video so much. And what you did was such fun! I know this Wukong thing is ancient Chinese mythology but also based on Chinese Zen/Tao/Philosophy. To appreciate the deeper meanings hidden behind all those details in the game, one could check out the Chinese novel “A journey to the west” or the Chinese Zen Book “How to be Happy: the Wisdom to Attain Happiness and Success by Constructing an Invincible Mind”.
Another point I feel like is overlooked is that wukong had a pre-existing narrative to guide it… which it did not deviate from for the sake of doing so. We don’t need a rework or reinvention of the wheel all the time (if at all). It’s good to see story telling respected again.
I agree. For example, the last few dozen adaptations of King Arthur have all been so different from the original, that doing a faithful adaptation of the original would feel new and fresh. It's also why we don't like Zack Snyder's Superman.
18:55 hit SO CLOSE to home for me. I love playing video games and supporting developers on their creations, but I’m not rich, and I honestly feel the industry has gotten out of hand with the expectation that every game needs to be a constant money generating machine. Baldurs Gate 3, Hades 1 and 2, Black Myrh, - these are just some examples of games that have done gaming right in my view, provide an amazing experience without asking you to continue to pay for things that the game NATURALLY should give us.
Remember that IGN gave Concord a controversial 7/10.....western game journos been having temper trantrums for ages now, trying to fight their decline into irrelevance. The whole divesity stick is The Witcher all over; polish company, game after books from polish author about polish history and mythology. Its the intolerant racists that scream the loudest when something unique comes out trying to share its culture with the world. Why cant we accept history and diversity for what it is instead of forcing it in everywhere? Make a BMW about indian mythology, give us a game about Native Americans, Maya, the Inca, Zulu, Maori,......there is so much diversity and history out there that could be made into a just as great experience, all each lacking mordern diversity but still being able to resonate with all gamers that enjoy good stories and games.
It is made all the worse that they muddy and discredit genuine issues. They make it about race when there is genuine concern in the overall goals of the companies who control these games (Tencent and by extension the CCP). But the story is instead focused on the game company who is largely just trying to make a cool fucking game. Nothing is going to be to everyone’s liking and that’s a good thing (I will say that the sexism and harassment culture in China is a genuine issue and Is another example of real issues being brushed aside for stories that aggressively pretend to care about progressive issues by trying to address them all in one go!)
![⭐ฮิตในTikTok!! ( หมูเด้ง MooDeng ) Ver. แดนซ์โจ๊ะๆ ReMix BY [ ดีเจกิต รีมิกซ์ ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3krsyfWUeHU/mqdefault.jpg)
I think this might be the best video I've made so far.
Live today: www.twitch.tv/legendary_drops
Ty for the segway to Tales of Kenzera, it looks like a good game.
I sincerely wish more games with rich lore involving other mythologies would exist. This game showcases some of the lore revolving around the JttW time period. Would be cool to see more mythos and the similar belief structures inherent with these mythoi of differing cultures. Kind of a "glue that binds us" situation. We are all people, we all want similar things AND the same kind of problems haunt all of us, no matter our origin.
I dunno, your BG3 wake up call video was sensational. Gave me goosebumps
True that, subbed
Man, your videos are a breath of fresh air in comparison to other gaming journalists. You're quickly becoming one of my favorite opinions in gaming. Keep doin what you're doin.
Black Myth: Wukong creators went scouring all over China and painstakingly 3D-scanned the architectures, statues, and artifacts from historical sites, relics, temples, and museums, as well as taking inspirations from ancient paintings and murals, to use for developing the game, thanks to the treasure trove of Chinese history and culture.
Imagine if more and more developers do something like this, what a blast it would be to explore the treasure trove of history and culture of ancient Egypt, Persia, India, Roman Empire, Greece, Maya civilizations, etc, thru playing a single player game.
Exactly! Imagine if Ubisoft ditched the AC-universe or some other game studio just created like these alternate stories on all sorts of myths or historical characters without sticking to a certain genre or being restricted by a certain universe.
@@zuriyel5368worse yet being dictated what they can or can't do by the so called consultants
You should play Shadow of the Tomb Raider then. Their Maya & Inca history is pretty spot on
You should play AC origins, its exactly what you describing very solid ancient egypt setting
Ubisoft back when they were making Unity, did exactly that. But they failed due to upper management rushing the devs. It's always the upper management's fault
The facial animations in Black Myth Wukong are made by my wife, she's in the dev team, so proud of her!
Tell her that many (including myself) find such facial features add some depths that when combined with the other aspects of the game (such as flowing hair dynamics and billowing clothes during the fight and in cut scenes for example) made it more immersive and enjoyable to play. Tell her that these small details really add up, and that her animations was not wasted.
優秀
tell your wife she's epic
Lucky man
Bravo 👏 ，I can't imagine how much hard work behind this game.
So many wake up calls you'd think they be awake by now
then you see Dustborn and Concord, these MFs will never learn
Or woke as you might say
Yet the industry in Western are still ... ALAN WAKE then ALAN WOKE
They maybe woke, but they're certainly not awake
@@Toa-Ignicus like i said, they stuck in Alan Woke world lol
My wife often plays with me on wukong. She gets immersed in the story, jumps with excitement when we defeat a boss, cries during emotional scenes, reads the story behind each monster, gives me fighting tips, and guides me through each map. Is this really what the game is all about?"
Love to see it
If it can help me reduce stress, soothe my emotions, and increase a richer understanding of life, it will be so valuable.
You guys are weird
@@lafireteamplx3400I’m sorry you feel that way, you’ll understand when you are ready it’s okay take your time. I would just advise that you refrain from making statements on things you don’t fully understand yet. All the best to you and you’re future friend 👋🏽
@@lafireteamplx3400 they're happy
Elden Ring was a wakeup call
Balders Gate 3 was a wakeup call
Black Myth Wukong is a wakeup call
How many times they gonna hit that snooze button before they get up!
They keep hitting snooze button
The games you listed are made with passion. All the other AAAA games are just made blindly following a checklist.
MFW free market
@@h3II0MN123 Ehh... Elden Ring and BG3 are technically AA list games. AAA has been shit for decades. Unlike AA and indies.
HD2 was a wake up call.
Black Myth Wukong succeeding despite the collective efforts of mainstream video game media trying to put it down is very much like Wukong (the character) achieving immortality many times over despite all of heaven trying to put it down. It's very poetic in that sense.
True
Wow 👏
porfect word！
For real bruh....
No it really does not, Wukong had less trouble when it comes to his levels immortality
Wukong is just a well made, Complete game. Single player. Multiple endings. Just like back in the day. Hidden bosses, awesome fun combat, just classic gaming. They put ALOT of work into this game. Presentation 10/10. A masterpiece really.
Can't agree with 10/10 presentation due to a little confusing storytelling when you have no mythology knowledge. Invisible walls also may be irritating often. It's not perfect, but nearly. I'm close to chapter 3 and loving it so far! For me 8-9/10, have to play till end
I mean Im pretty sure thats just the Problem that we are Western people. I think Most of the Chinese Players already know Things about the Journey to the West Story. + If you are really interested in the story you can read it in the Info cards you get throughout the Game. I think If they wouldve just told it normal, the Chinese Players would be bored because they already know much about it^^@@dasarchiv3508
@@dasarchiv3508it is your problem that you don't want to learn the chinese Myth, chinese gamers never complained for not understand Greek Myth in God of war
@@dasarchiv3508 By the same logic, the entire GOW series should lose points because the storytelling is a little confusing to those who are not familiar with Greek mythology and/or Norse mythology. But no, not only players and media will deduct points for that, instead they will try to do research and learn about such culture. It's only when it's from Chinese culture(which is way more ancient and rich in content than most other cultures), it becomes a problem...I wonder why🙄
@@dasarchiv3508someone is telling u that u cut 1or 2 points from 10/10 is ur problem, due to u don’t know the original story. But as a Chinese I don’t feel that it problems. No one can know every knowledge from the entire world. Just ignore other’s opinions and enjoy the game bro. If u like the game and want to know what’s story behind the game, then go to read story maybe, that’s a whole new experience. Just enjoy ur game and enjoy your own passion. Enjoy the GAME and follow ur own heart. I think that’s the true meaning of GAME.
As a gamer from China, I really appreciate youtubers like you express support for Wukong. I'm really glad to see you guys enjoying the culture from my homeland. Your opinion is fair and pertinent, thank you a lot!
Ayo, what happened on Tinanmen Square ins 1989?
@leviathan5207 I don't know why you mention about this, I can't see how the two are related. And I don't think this game is about politics😅
@@SwordRindont mind him, just a troll.
@@leviathan5207 🤣👉
😂bro think his the joker@@leviathan5207
Small point of interest and appreciation: New devs making their first big game made better facial animations for both yaoguais and humanoids than multibillionaire Ubisoft's Star Wars Outlaws.
Yep. Unfortunately these 'AAA' studios are lazy and think the public will just love whatever slop they churn out with minimal effort.
Mesmerized by kang jin star, I'd say.
@bazparkes6516 they must have known thst their bs is only going yo be accepted until there is competition. Can you believe wukong only costed 40mil to make ? Now compare that to the latest hot pile of crap ubisoft and shat out.
It is Buguisoft, what do you want?
Agreed. This game company came out pretty strong
I usually skip the Lore Journal entries in games but in Black Myth every entry is not an exposition dump, but a short story. Every single enemy has a tale about who they were in life. The days they fell in love, or learned a hard lesson. It humanizes every single foe you've faced in a way I've never seen in a game before. Check them out, fr.
This is what the original novel intended to and had actually achieved.
This may be China’s first AAA game, but China has a huge gaming industry and plenty of talent. GameScience as a studio may be new, but its staff are NOT new to the gaming industry. The two creators worked on mobile games at Tencent for a decade, and that’s where they met. They left to make the game of their dreams. So I’m not surprised at all that China’s first AAA game is so amazing.
This isn't the first Chinese AAA game. It's just the first one that was marketed outside China.
Yes AAA level games don't just pop out of thin air. You need a certain amount of talent and knowhow developing over a long period of time in order build an industry that is capable of developing a massive complex graphically heavy game such as this. There was many years of the 99% of perspiration to achieve this 1% inspirational type of game.
Same deal with Chinese EVs, with westerners seem dumbfounded that "suddenly" the Chinese are building all these high quality extremely competitive EVs at bargain prices. They didn't suddenly do shit, but instead have been building up their automotive industry in general, and EV supply chain in particular for almost 20 years now.
No actual good product springs out of nowhere. You need to lay the foundation to make that good product, which takes time and effort, often not noticed for years until the good results begin to show.
@@exu7325 noop it's truely is the frist one...unless you marked genshin impact as AAA game LOL。
@@tren133 you're absolutely right，there is an ancient Chinese saying that 厚積而薄發（ Qualitative change causes quantitative change）
People talking like they picked a few guys off the street and threw a game together lol
I don't want to sound corny, but this is a "brave" video review.
I am Chinese American, grew up right here in the US. I play both American and Chinese games. It's more apparent to my demographic because obviously we live it. The bias against any Chinese content from western media is constant. And it is in all facets, not just gaming. Just look at the Chinese characters in American entertainment, think about who they choose to cast and what kind of message they try to send with those choices of casting.
But I digress.
Back to why this is "brave". A lot of my non-Asian friends feel the same way about the "diversity" stuff, about the bias against China. But none of them really speak about it publicly because well... A) it doesn't affect them, and B) they don't want to risk their jobs. And I'm not angry about it, I totally understand.
You're saying all of the quiet parts out loud though. So bravo.
Look at how they(the anglo old money oligarchs ruled "collective West") portrayed Soviet culture or Russian characters in the past. You will understand everything.
The entertainment industry is not neutral in any power game.
"Diversity" is just another name for opposition. Most of the more extreme "diversity" champions are not championing for fairness. They are championing for their "turn at superiority" because they feel they are unfairly treated by the "superior class".
To wage war you have to hate the 'enemy'.
Quinn's video on the forever war is pretty good.
We are not thinking about China man. Only you make this about China. China in the real world is not China from these games anyway. It's like saying people make Roman content when they create a French or Spanish world in a game. Completely stupid.
Same with Total War Three Kingdoms. People aren't thinking about CCP China once and why should they? You know what I find the richest about your comment?
That you call out western media but China is the first and foremost perpetrator of destroying Chinese image across the globe.
BTW. This publisher is headquartered in China. It's not even an American game lmao. Aight.
@@yestomor7673 bad media is bad media, nothing about the characters would change that. If you're so hung up on being portrayed poorly because of some low budget slop, then that's your own fault.
As a Chinese, I got teary-eyed towards the end of this video. Just because I feel that you really got how we, grown up listening to the tales of Journey to the West, felt playing this game.As you said, this game really reached over the cultural iron curtain and reminded us that deep down we are all alike.
I loved monkey magic tv show...gonna look more Into the story of journey to west...even more so after playing the game
@@YNWA6timeslove from USA
This game got me so interested in Chinese’s mythology. I even started reading Anthony C. Yu’s translation of Journey to the West after playing the game!
@@YNWA6times th-cam.com/video/Hu0XosgxCyU/w-d-xo.htmlsi=fvseZrJ1EMnAZEX1
Sun Wukong makes a big fuss in the Heavenly Palace, and you will know how powerful Wukong is. this is a very good old animation.
@@YNWA6times Uproar in Heaven: Wukong makes a big fuss in the Heavenly Palace, and you will know how powerful Wukong is. This is a very good old animation.
This video is quite literally what I have been feeling for the last few days, and I felt like I was going crazy cos no content creator or reviewer has expressed similar sentiment in such a elegant way. Great work.
They are afraid of backlash from these activists pretending like journalists.
Welcome to being Chinese/Chinese-American. Think how you're feeling like you were going crazy over game reviews?
This is how it is with everything else for us, work, school, everything. Just random insane bias.
In the cave at 6:12, there are 12 statues depicting the 12 Chinese zodiacs. I took 5 minutes to appreciate them but was never able to find the monkey. It just now clicked with me that YOU were the monkey that broke off from the statue. We don't know why or how the destined one got there, but that's such a cool way to start off the chapter.
the statue the little monk turned into (exactly that small one at 6:12) is robbed away and currently in the british museum. the scene was shot specifically in that way to send a message, to say:" I wanna go back to china!" as he looked at all his mates whose statues are preserved in china.
@@richa1d648wowww
@@richa1d648will china give back all of the relics they have from around the world?
Thank you for this video. I'm a rookie game dev working for some studios both big and small in my country and they never let me go beyond the proven data, the "worked games", always clone this, clone that. I've been drained to the point of wanting to go back to product dev, but after picking up Wukong I was reminded of all the beautiful games that brought me into this industry in the first place. The desire to make games with player's experience at the heart isn't wrong at all.
The animated shorts after every chapter are amazing.
That and the painting (or whatever it is) are always awesome. I actually look forward to those at the end of each chapter.
The different animation styles blew me away. Hand drawn 2d, stop motion... amazing seriously. A beautiful reward for finishing a chapter. China came out swinging with their first AAA game.
The last one made me cry
Bajie so sad
@@yangliu3107 the last one called 'unfinished' got me pumped up it wasn't sad really. it played the story of jttw in reverse as wukong regains all his memories. beautifully animated.
I loaded up the game and played for an hour this morning, approaching the Whiteclad Noble, and got as far as upgrading the health gourd, then closed it out to take a break. Then I tried to pull up a web browser, learning I'd been offline the entire time.
This actually brought a smile to my face, one of the countless smiles Black Myth Wukong has given me in the last few days. Thanks for the great content LD!
I wish you a happy time …
enjoyit~
I've been gaming for 45 years. Been there, done that is an understatement. Elden Ring was excellent, DLC excellent. God of War and Ragnarok, brilliant. Black Myth:Wukong is another level *above* these most vaunted titles. I just hit Chapter 2 and the challenge is savage (I'm 57, give me a break!) but not unfair. Repeated attempts at Boss fights will see victory eventually. Tha aesthetic, the armor and weapon upgrade systems - incredible. You *do* feel you're getting incrementally more powerful as you defeat more sections of the game but you have to EARN it.
Black Myth: Wukong is an absolute masterpiece IMHO. I'll be more than happy to do NG+++ to see everything.
Hey I'm 40 years old and when I was fighting Yin Tiger I was questioning myself if I still had the reflexes I used to when I was younger. It's bs, we are just as capable today as we were when we were young so don't let that get to you, I'm currently on chapter 5 right now and loving every second of this game. The varied environments, massive enemy variety, and combat. All top tier!
I’m 43 and totally agree. It’s fair. You’ll get there!
You'll love Stella Blade too
The developer boss already said: We just wanna make a good game we want to play. Its as simple as that.
AMEN
I totally get the point about how online games can take over a player’s time so demandingly. The competition in online games feels like a battle where it’s all or nothing - if you’re spending all your energy and money there, you miss out on trying other games for a long while. You might get stuck on one game unless you somehow snap out of it and decide to change things up. On the other hand, single-player games feel a bit more chill. You can enjoy a full, satisfying experience in less time, which leaves you free to try out new stuff.
it is the whole Asia, not only China, we grow up watching this story
Ngl i learn sun wu Kong by dragon ball and the God of high school
100%, I'm from Malaysia, we also grow up watching the TV show Journey to The West. Iconic TV shows. It's soo crazy how old that show now, if you try and watch it today it felt soo weirdly out of place, but back then it was one of the top TV show. But My favorite back then was Condor Heroes series(Liu Yi Fei was my childhood crush, lol) and The Storm Riders/The Storm Warriors film. This just make me wanna watch it all again, except the Journey to the West, that show was too old it's hard to watch now, I hope they remake it properly now, not like those new movies adaptations they made, which pretty far from the real lore.
😂@@01-aleriorayyaarifaisal91
But the story portraited in BMW is seriously distorted and unoriginal. The original story in the novel is way better.
@@trumplostlol3007 They had to create a different "Sequel" to JTTW which is non existed to begin with to have more creative freedom for a game while not straying too far from the lore. BMW story started after JTTW stories entirely ended. So technically they never really touched or changed the original story which is to me a genius move.
Spot on observation and argument!!
I’m a 58 year old gamer since 1980 Apple ][ era. Black Myth WuKomg (BMWK) brings back the great gaming experience and originality I have experienced during 1980-1998 era of awesome design of all kinds of game designs.
Gamers just want to play great games, period.
It was a magical time especially the 90s
You acting like there hasn’t been any incredible games since 2000
Every game that reveals what gamers truly want is a wake up call.
Now if other devs and companies (BanDEI) actually wake up is another story.
Every time journalists try to cancel a game, it sells tens of millions of copies. Every time gamers ignore a game, it's down to 60 concurrent players.
Is it a "wake up call" if they keep burying their heads in the sand?
The cancel mob managed to piss off 4Chan over Hogwarts Legacy. 4Chan never forgets.
@@DarkHeartTheEmobandei?
@@f.o.8547 Is what he call Bandai now, because they embrace DEI ideas hard, they even change their logo to represent that, I didn't see the new logo yet.
@@DarkHeartTheEmo bandai namco still releases decent games though? I'm all for anti-DEI, but there are many examples of companies that got rotten by DEI and bandai is not one of them yet (edit: in terms of the quality of games released).
This was the epitome of diversity, the opposite of the controversy. This made me genuinely incredibly interested in Chinese mythology and got me to read the Journey to the West. This is how you get people interested in other cultures. Do it naturally, so it doesn’t feel forced or condescending, and just tell a good story. People will genuinely love it and gravitate to it.
Wukong is Game of The Year 2024😎💯I’m 80 hours into the game and basically I’m only near the beginning of chapter 4 so this game has quality and quantity no doubt it’s one of the greatest, and most complete single player game’s in a very long time without any extra hidden costs or micro transactions, and We got the full Game day 1 at launch💯
I mean yeah the game is really good but 80 hours? I'm at chapter 4 and I have about 20 hours and I really haven't missed anything until now.
Take your time king, savour every moment of it, is not just a game it's experience
@@rathalos28able I'm on 60 hours starting chapter 4, Do you have a problem with that?
@@john_Reilly2027 no why would I lol I just don't understand how people take this long
@@rathalos28able ppl have different skill levels that's pretty understandable
I swear I could’ve gotten this game for free from my friends account but I bought it just to support this amazing game and to show that we need more games like this
I bought one on Steam and one on PS5 just to show my little support too, damn woke firms and medias with agendas.
You can't wake up those that are pretending to be asleep.
Kind of like how you can't convince a deliberately lying westerner that the reasons they hate China are false.
They're not sleep they're woke as can be 😅
lmao these replies are gold. Best described as Schrödinger's game journalists : Both asleep and woke at the same time. You won't find out until you poke them.
Correct. Social conditioning is much more valuable than profits are. Obviously.
Game development cycle is 3 to 6 years. If Elden ring was the wake up call, we would have only been seeing new AAA single player game commitments at the beginning of next year lol.
Black Myth is not perfect. But I support Game Science still, because every little details in the game tell me one thing: they love games！A startup studio which invest 7 yrs and millions dollars without any undertaker, is already a myth. The game is an adventure for me. And the development journey of this game itself is one incredible adventure for them. Respect
Gamers weren't "tired of linear, single player games." We were sad, because good games have endings, and we always want more.
My god this is so true dude 🤣
Yup. Unfortunately, devs and gamers don't realize that no one actually wants to live forever, nor do we want a game to go on forever. It's impossible.
On the other hand, I am extremely tired of those god damn open world games. I really liked Elden Ring, but not because it was open world. It just happened to feel like a 4th Dark Souls game, which is my favorite trilogy of all time in gaming. Good level design is so much more cool/enjoyable to me. Like Undead Burg and nearby areas that are tied together so fantastic in DS1.
I say no more open world games. I lost hope in EA long time ago anyways. Now FromSoft is my favorite game creator. I trust in smaller game companies, preferably Asian game developers (I know FromSoft aren't small anymore but they still deliver) to take over the gaming market. Because they aren't forcing PC and woke propaganda down my throat.
Black Myth Wukong is a great example of game developers actually understanding the market, and creates games with soul and love. EA, Ubisoft, Blizzard, Activision and Sony are only in it for the money, checking boxes and to force PC propaganda onto their players. And it shows in their games. Because they are terrible. Concorde is a great example of a woke experiment gone wrong and I'm happy that it failed so colossally. Best thing to happen all year. Shows how little people care about pronouns and how much people care about cool character design, story and games not being endless and instead have good map design.
As a Chinese player grow up with the childhood memory in full of the journey to the west. I feel exactly the same touching and conclusion of this game. This is a journey to all the players. a Chinese type of romance.
Trump or Kamala will ban it soon for National Security Risks, after entering office. 😂 Damn! Will the damn Chineses stop improving and advancing!
Yes, I feel the same way as a person who is of chinese descent but wasnt born in china. There are so many memories attached to journey to the west. My father told me these stories as a child as a bedtime story and I cried when I saw the trailer!
@@Facts..Checker probably cause china stole this game from USA...
@@Facts..Checker the difference with tic toc was that its actually being used by the CCP to harvest your data and destroy the youth of the west. tic tok in china is educational and doesn't tell you to eat detergent.
@@baeunnie9065come back and visit china if time's right
I can’t believe it’s controversial to these western game journos to make characters in an ancient Chinese setting, well….Chinese
I can't believe that the libs are so utterly incompetent and annoying that there are now westerners that have sided with the Chinese on something.
But where is the gaaayyyyy thoo 💀💀
@@oriandthesleepytimeAh ha! So toxic masculinity? ... jk... I a make a da funny.
There's something more sinister at play here. I heard rumors the US government wants to ban this game because it's increasing China's Soft Power and changing perceptions.
@@oriandthesleepytime
wukong was born from stone - no gender
There was a whole women country in Journey to the west with female king, soldiers, general, prime minister - feminism
Wukong is vegetarian
Men getting pregnant after drinking from pregnancy well
Variety? Fox, rat, monkey, human, scorpion, spider, demon, gods, different races along the journey and more
On my first NG+ experience and couldn't be happier. I want nothing to do with the US "AAAA" market, other than to watch it melt down. Also, your point on the mediation spots couldn't be more spot on. I remember my experience of playing Uncharted 2, which was one of the best experiences in video gaming. You get through some insane sequences (buildings collapsing with you in them, a train sequence with helicopters, tanks, and a derailment, etc...), then ultimately wake up in a peaceful village with nothing to do but exhale. Those devs really knew how to spin a tale, and I feel the same with BMW.
This review is so thorough, so scathing against the journalists, and well done, I wish I could give it a second LIKE. Well done sir, and subscribed.
I bought wukong last Thursday and did not wanna put it down at all, over the weekend. My 8YO son (gamer too)is grounded for 2weeks and has been sitting with me everyday after work and watching me play and trying boss fights when I need a small break. Even he's loving it and thinks it's awesome. I can't wait to get off work this evening and play all weekend again, luckily I have 3day weekends every weekend,and now a 4 day with labor day on Monday(also my bday😅) so Im in for a treat this weekend. There's only a few games like this that have came out in the past few years that have me this locked in. Vote with your wallets gamers, we have the power to change the industry for the better if we just have a bit more self control!!✊
Edit: I beat erlang today, and my 8YO beat the final boss of the story. Such a proud father rn.😅😂
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday!
Thank y'all.😁
Yooo Happy birthday 🥳🎉🎉🎉🎂
Can't imagine how you wife would react to all this. 😂😂
You've summarised everything perfectly. It's the biases and institutionalised, invested interests that continuously perplex and puzzle us. As gamers, we just want to game, not pay subscription fees (or any extras), play politics or solve mind games. It's so simple, and yet somehow we've turned every industry into a giant cash grab or a social puzzle. I truly believe that as we move forwards, authenticity will come back again, but we need more messengers like you to spread the word.
I'm not PC, but the media's treatment of Black Myth Wukong and even FromSoft when Elden Ring first came out felt actually kinda racist. Like racism for me is when you speak on a culture without studying it and you have a clear agenda.
The game delivered on its promise
It is rcist, not kinda
These gaming "journalists" are 100% racists. However, they still think they are the "good" guys and are blind to this.
I've often said the people who scream the most about racism and equality are often the MOST racist and the people who want the least equality. It gives them an avenue to yell at others and seek power over them, instead of facing their own demons.
It’s beyond blatant racism. Even now mainstream media like the BBC and NYT quite literally cannot report facts of its success without adding mention of fabricated “controversies” to headlines. 0 chance of them doing that for a white man made game.
A large part of Black Myth Wukong's success attribute to its script.
Journey to the West is a masterpiece written hundreds of years ago. What you have experienced, the characters, the plots, story lines, etc are cultivated long time ago(imagine the life in hundreds of years ago could be.)
Thanks to modern technology we are now able to capture the vivid and splendid imagination that the past used to be, and it would be a pity if you don't play it because it is not just a simple game, but a masterpiece.
It will give you a window to see through the history, and learn more about the other side of the world, and Chinese culture.
沉浸式电影
As a Chinese who moved to Canada since 2005 and lived there for almost 20 years, I'm so happy about the success of Wukong.
I felt it was always such a shame that we couldn't share our true culture with the western audience due to many factors.
I remember watching a streamer starting the opening scene and said something like: "wow Wukong is just like Goku, so many inspirations from Goku and Naruto (pluck of many)"
It was a complicated feeling when I heard it. I don't blame the streamer because it's on us to share our culture, I just wish we had the capabilities to deliver our culture earlier. On the other hand, I'm happy that more people now know about Wukong and how he inspired many awesome works from the east.
Won't go into the details of the politics part. Just think how most feel about China and imagine, could some of the main stream media's journalists also acting like IGN?
It sucked when Japan became the representative for Chinese culture in games. Like in Dynasty Warriors and fighting game characters.
@@sigerlion8608 對，三國也是中國的歷史
I am Vietnamese, and most Vietnamese love Journey to the West, we grow watching them every summer. We are probably one of nation that's watch alot of China and Hongkong movies and music
It's mostly China's fault for not sharing its culture. China has been extremely insular since the communist takeover, bordering North Korea levels until the 2000s. China still does not export much of its culture. Black Myth Wukong might legitimately be one of the largest exports of Chinese culture in history. China has simply never exported its culture in such a way before this game. What the west knows about Chinese culture mainly comes from Hong Kong entering hollywood, like Jackie Chan movies. Since the Chinese kept their culture a secret, of course nobody's gonna know it.
慢慢来吧，硬实力好提，软实力要时间
It's been so much fun playing this game, I feel like I'm being challenged for the right reasons and not just normal mindless grind. Every boss fight is a challenge that I can overcome after learning their patterns. And it's varied enough so that the boss fights don't feel like a grind themselves. You know what the best part is? No in game store. I log in, I play, I enjoy, I fuck off when I get stuck and come back to it accepting the challenge willingly. There are no words I can say that can describe how much needed this game was.
You mean to say you didn't have to pay £16.99 for a weapon in each boss fight?
@@dotmanmideor pay 3$ or whatever cost to get "stamina"/energy/whatever to fight boss again🤣
@dotmanmide not sure which game you guys are referring to but that sounds terrible!
@@qkhan69腾讯游戏：你报我名字得了😂
@@Saki_Nanami my Chinese is very rusty
Elden Ring. Baldurs Gate 3. Stellar Blade. And now Black Myth Wukong. This is no longer ringing an alarm bell. This is an air raid siren.
Either AAA companies are still asleep or they're learning the wrong lessons here
No this isn't an air raid siren this is a nuclear bomb inbound siren and they launched the bomb on themselves
I would say baldurs gate, but it's literally a copy and paste of their last game. It's Divinity 2, by the way
And the airstrike is coming to lay waste to dogwater games.
and lies of p !
I grabbed this game to play on my quest 3 to hilite my new vr headset. After watching you I'm actually looking forward to playing it now.
I'm an old gamer from the 90 s who had pretty much given up on studios who have focused on profits rather then production values in the recent past.
You are a breath of fresh air keep going brother.
I only play single player games, and I'll always be a single player gamer. It makes me so happy to see millions of gamers having a total blast. No one is holding your hand. No one is helping you. When you beat a game, you kicked that games ass, and that was 100% YOU! Nothing feels better.
I dont see a lot people talk about it but every enemy has a short lore behind them and also a Chinese paint style splash art. Reading those stories was also a very fun experience for me. Not to mention some of the boss's story hints the story/hidden bosses.
And some bosses, characters, have whole lore and mythology for them - especially like Nezha and Erlang, they have their own lore, myth (that there are actual people worship them), novels, tv adaptions, etc....
I wanted to write that this video really touched my heart. I listened to the whole thing and it flew by- I was so so so emotional hearing you speak so strongly and with such heart. I had no clue the western media and journalists fabricated so much. You had great points about focusing on the game, and nothing else.
This is the first video from you I've seen, but I must agree, this has to be one of the best. It is definitely one of the best things I have heard recently.
Thank you. I loved listening to you talk about my culture. Thank you so much
When i saw how much work they put into this one game, it legit made me emotional and have me goosebumps
My 2cents -- The AAA gaming industry needs a major overhaul. There are way too many execs, journos, and devs that are cancerous for the industry. Publicly blaming gamers is idiotic. It's simple economics: create what people want to buy or face going out of business.
Greed is destroying our world. Healthcare, entertainment, politics. It’s everywhere, and will only get worse
"Don't you guys have phones?"
Big studios were small once, now they fall and new small studios going to grow big. It’s like the bad ending of BMW , it’s a circle of life
Even the very concept of AAA.
devs? Rather the execs - devs just follow orders they were given.
This game has *80+ unique bosses* btw. To put that into perspective, Elden Ring only has about 50 unique bosses, since so many of them are repeated.
That's insane, and most of those 80 bosses are actually _good_ , some are even amazing. Give me a proper gauntlet with remixed bosses in an update like Sekiro did and I can play this for hundreds of hours.
游戏科学很擅长扬长避短，我们都可以看出他们在地图设计上缺乏经验，但是他们在boss的细节设计和美术上疯狂堆料使得优点更加突出
The move sets are not unique at all though
the tiger boss was actually made by capturing hundreds of hours of cats in motion. People were complaining about its unpredictability, but actually the Wukong devs already had to exclude a lot of motion capture footage because real life cats are that unpredictable.
@blcheah2672 I felt that way with the snake boss in ch 1. He took me like 30 tries and tiger was probably like 20.
I wouldn’t say most are good, a lot of them are great but a lot of them are also just easy cannon fodder, nothing wrong with it though
I didn't expect AAA game this damn good from new Chinese studio. It deserves my GOTY award.
AAA game is no longer from western or Japan only. I anticipate more of such exceptionally better games from China.
And they weren't even an AAA studio, they've never made a PC game before, and now they adopt all those new technologies and made the best looking game in business while fairly optomized too, mind-blowing. It's like how CDproject red with Witcher 3 but even MORE impressive
I hope more devs in China follow in Game Science's footsteps. If they do, they can really turn this ship around and end wokeness in the industry. I just love how you can feel their passion for this game and worked harder than studios several times the size of Game Science.
I care less about politics, whoever made the best game win! So be it China, India, Iran or even North Korea.
There are so many genres in China that are suitable for making games
Let’s hope that the CCP doesn’t meddle too much with their censors, fingers crossed
I have never bought a game that costs more than $20-30, that means I usually buy older titles. But I'm gonna buy this one this month. This looks stunning and I miss good single player games.
I'm glad that Black Myth Wukong is a success because some of the characters in this game have their own entire lore ready to be made into a beauty of a game like this one. A good example would be Erlang (The 3 eyes god) and Nezha (the kid god flying on fiery wheels in Bull King's flashback).
An old Chinese poem seems especially appropriate.
兩岸猿聲啼不住,輕舟已過萬重山
A literal translation goes...
The apes on the riverbank barks in vain, the nimble raft sails true past ten thousand mountains.
Pay no heed to the noise and stay on course. I wish more people do this.
Do you know the english translation of the title?
@@thedarktar9Early Departure from the City of Baidi （早发白帝城） by Li Bai, one of the greatest poets of All time in China
This new unity feels damn good (between east and west)
Early Departure from the City of Baidi (Li Bai)
At dawn I take leave from Baidi amidst the rosy clouds,
A thousand li* to Jiangling - I will arrive in one day,
Apes call out unceasingly from both shores,
My light boat has already passed through ten-thousand layers of mountains.
*li - ancient measure of length, approximately 500 meters
I’ve been a gamer for 40 years now. I can’t even begin to count the number of games I’ve bought and played, from Super Zaxxon, Uridium, Karateka, R-Type, Wolfenstein, X-Wing, Doom to Half-Life, Tomb Raider, Skyrim, Far Cry, Uncharted, Dark Souls, Nier Automata, Silent Hill, and so many others. There were countless games that I loved.
But now, I find myself desperately searching for games that resonate with me. I’m looking for those great SP experiences, with a unique story, a solid beginning, a real ending, and with a nice challenge between-without microtransactions, NFTs, battle passes, or pay-to-win s**t.
There are still a few, recently like Elden Ring, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Stellar Blade, but they’re becoming increasingly rare. Most of the games in the genres I once loved are now coming from small indie studios. Meanwhile, the AAA companies keep churning out the same formulaic games over and over-like the endless Assassin’s Creed XXX-.
I started to think, maybe it’s just me getting older, and that the industry is now catering to a younger audience with different tastes. But seeing the success of a game that perfectly captures the essence of a great single-player experience over all those fast-food, self-proclaimed AAA products gives me a glimmer of hope, that I am not the only one with my wish for more games like that.
Feng Ji (the leader and founder of game science) also talked about something similar. He is warried that he is too old to attract the young Chinese players. Then in 2018 the first promotional video (PV) of Black Myth: Wukong set the Chinese internet on fire, bringing millions of followers to his personal weibo (chinese twitter) account. And Fengji own this to the severe aging population trend in China during a interview. Well for me that the excellent sense, music, story and bosses would attract every player no matter how old they are. I agree with Legendary Drops that a good game is the art first. For me Blackmyth Wukong is the art created by 140 passionate gaming professionals in Game science. Yang Qi (another founder and the art director of game science ) said both he and Feng Ji are tired of thoese live service game and that is why they left Tencent and develop Game Science. However, they decided to start with some mobile games because of the limitation of both founding and stiduo size. Yang qi said he is unsatisfied with his first/second mobile games and he said he could never make a great game if he do not like (the type of) game in the begining. The changing happened in 2018 when one day Yang Qi found the decline of his physical fitness and attention and he felt that if he did not start right now, he might never has enough power for creating the game he want. I feel Yang Qi, Feng ji and the whole team of Game Science regard Blackmyth Wukong as not only a work but also their dream, and that is how this new stido, started with 40 members (and finally around 140 in 2024) without any experience of 3A games did finally show us, especially Chinese players like me, such an impressing MIRACLE. Arts are created by the one who loves their work, not the business elites who only cares bout the stock prices in the office.
By the way just want to said I am so disappointing to the Blizzard and I hope Kotick all the best.
not getting older. Most new games just shit!
@@ruiwu9312纠正一下，黑神话悟空第一个公开视频是在2020/08/20，不过游戏企划是2018年开始的
I recommend Sleeping Dogs. Basically True Crime: Hong Kong, but rebranded because of marketing.
A VERY good GTA clone that became a sleeper hit (pun intended) and cult classic after release. Word of mouth got it more popular over the years, but it was released by Square Enix around the time of Just Cause (3?) and Tomb Raider reboot so it went under the radar.
I had no idea this game was coming out until my brother randomly bought it, and it’s definitely been one of the best games I’ve ever played
All the "games journalists" trying to smear the game and gaslight people into not buying it, only for the game to surpass even Elden Ring, was my favorite aspect of it. If this didn't show how irrelevant they are, I don't know what will.
@@MisterNightfish pretty sure it hasn't surpassed elden ring
And its not even comparable elden ring is a open world soulslike with god tier graphics gameplay and voice acting,wukong's voice acting is okey ig and story is kinda meh,gameplay is god tier and the amount of bosses makes it really unique and fun,but I think you can tell elden ring dlc is a closer resemblance
Not to belittle it comparing it to elden ring dlc and not saying its bad in anyway,my favorite boss is in the dlc
Only surpassed Elden ring in player count since there is 1 billion Chinese players in real life
@@ididntaskverified3663 Im guessing you mean peak player count and not all time because naturally black myth wukong will get more players because of so many people getting introduced to the soulborne genre
@@KillerWolf1324 openworld can be fun but a linear game can be a more curated experience Does not make Elden ring better or worse than wukong.
@@yol_n it makes the exploring opportunities more so take it as you may but more exploring makes better game. Hard to prove me wrong because wukong isn't completely linear there are side quest that are MASSIVE and that only contributes to the point im trying to make,no completely linear game will make it in the top 10 of games because then your basically doing the same thing over and over while watching a movie
Oh btw Wukong is also on WeGame in China and that is not shown in Steam and you can only get a WeGame account if you live in China. Thus the actual player count is even higher than that of Steam and consoles.
I think this game could possibly end up selling 25 mil copies if not more in one year's time, which took CP2077 three years to reach that number, according to Gamalytic and VG Insights, GS had approximately sold 10 mil in 4 days, and 15 mil copies in 10 days since launched.
nah, wegame barely used in china
95% ppl in china using steam
@@yumayums Nah this is literally false given that most steam games are not available in china and Steam's Concurrent players only topped 37 Million. So no 95% of china DOES NOT use steam. More of China plays Valorant and League of legends than they do games on steam and those games are not on steam
@@Mr.Genesis You'd be surprised how many things are not available in China but you can find them easily in China XD. Whenever it comes to picking between wegame and steam they always go for steam for a much better user friendly experience.
@@Mr.Genesishe's not wrong, he's lying. China bad and all that.
"I start seeing studios that have people that are just clocking in rather than locking in" damn.
Video game devs don't even play games anymore. The industry has been fully corporatized and now only a select few studios actually care about making games that are fun rather than making games that they believe, often wrongly, will make them constant revenue.
That line was so hard and so true
That went so hard for no reason
I know and the worst part is, I can't even blame the workers because it's the culture in many modern day studios that has led to many talented people getting burned out.
When you turn up to a metric obsessed, story-point driven nightmare where the quality of your work only just needs to pass QA, but your timesheets better be on point, your admin must be 100% up to date at all times regardless of how much time is wasted doing so & dont you ever log more hours than the allocated amount on your ticket, it's hard to do much more than clock in... Because that's all that management care about until it's too late.
Shouting into the wind here though, you'd be surprised how many of us have rung this alarm bell for years at this point and not one shred of care was given. It's an investor-first, quality-second industry now.
@@mchonkler7225 This is a mostly a lie but yet very true to certain people. Depends on the studios. Many Directors and studios encourages their employees to play variety of games. Many even at these corporatised studios do too. It’s in developers and artists best interest to see what’s going on in the industry, whether it’s encouraged by employers or not.
The studios I imagine you have issue with do have many talented people that play games but those ideas don’t pass through higher ups (Certainly the case with Bethesda) or are not given away to them. Either the directors/Leads are good enough to successfully create a vision or the development is a collaborative effort like the case of Baldurs Gate 3.
It's a story about a Chinese Monk, a monkey, a pig and a former Space Marine going to The library to borrow some books, how much more diverse can you get?
If I wasn't already going to get it, your take on it would have sealed the deal. I've seen enough of your videos to get the impression you really do play games for the fun, and you aren't afraid to be critical of the things you really love. I think channels like yours are literally the future of gaming journalism.
Thank you man I appreciate that
The meditation point really is a brilliant design, which also fits into Chinese culture and Buddhism/Taoism perfectly.
The game features
-no repetitive bosses
-poetry to describe characters (when was the last time u saw poetry as character description)
- complete game . No dlc or micro transactions
- back tracking and upgrades
- beautiful art design
- ability to turn into enemies (even get their attacks)
- scale of enemies increase with progress
- chapter endings have moral tales in unique animation styles
- beautiful music
- multiple endings
- 40 hours of gameplay
-new game plus with all your upgrades attached .
Mediocre gameplay. Poor mans god of war.
@@m.w.6604 God Of War post-PS3 is actual dog shit that doesn't deserve the title it was given.
@@inkchariot6147
So Kratos should have just been a Butcher?
@@m.w.6604Get it. Have you played the game? 😂
i mean the frog boss shows up 3 times in a different colour but thats about it
"A game is Art first, and a Product second..."
Couldn't have said that better myself!
Finally someone in the west considered it as just a good game instead of politicizing it just because it is from a Chinese game developer.
I think almost all western content creators I've seen play the game actually enjoy it a lot. Makes you think if those journalists even finished the intro lol
@@EsKaioS if you meant the game journalist, we already know they are a clownfest, there's literally 0 input from them that can be considered not biased
Many have said it's a good game
@@EsKaioSin Chinese we say : 群众的眼睛是雪亮的，literal translation: the eyes of the public are bright. Too bad it’s a market economy over the world 😅
這是個好的開始... 👍
“Clocking in instead of locking in,” damn what a quote
The game took a wonderfully creative spins to Zhu Bajie, one of the JTW's most beloved characters:
-Made him super cute. My mom, who's completely disinterested in video games, commented on the "cute piggy." I want Bajie figurines on my desk
-Gave him an awesome story and flashy action sequences
-Tons of unique animations, voice lines, and interactive options to build exposition and an emotional bond with the player
-MVP support in normal gameplay
-Most importantly, *he stayed true to his persona from JTW*
This is how you keep your core audience and engage with newer players. A++ effort, well done!
like not gone lie but i've gotten over a dozen chills when im playing this game, i never experienced that before
chapter 4 struck me, the love between a pig and a spider, that takes "inclusivity" on a whole 'nother' level, but hey, apparently not the type of "inclusivity" the gaming journalists are looking for. /shrug
They were both celestial beings in heaven though..they were reincarnated into a spider and a pig as a punishment
@@EduruChan Reincarnating into a pig wasn't his punishment, his punishment was to suffer a love tragedy through 1000 lifetimes, whenever he died from one of his reincarnations he would regain clarity and remember everything from his past lives. He was too traumatized at one point and couldn't bear with it anymore and tried to run away but he fell into the wrong reincarnation cycle and ended up a pig.
*spoiler alert* If you revisit the the area after clearing the game, you will find the spider lady's grave and a celestial pill that was kept in a treasure box. The pill is used to revive someone, supposedly the pig left the pill there so he can revive his love after everything's over.
Well actually the love story between Zhu Bajie and the spider in Chapter 4 has sparked significant controversy among Chinese players because their love has never been explicitly mentioned in Journey to the West. By the way there is another interesting thing that one pig ( 一只猪， yi zhi zhu) has the same pronunciation with one spider ( 一蜘蛛, yi zhi zhu) in oral Chinese and maybe that's why game science investigate the love stody between them
Beauty(or not) is only skin-deep, we are all the same underneath (Yaoguai or not).
I loved the singing headless monk in Chapter 2. It was so immersive and he always came at the best and unexpected moments, further adding to the mystery of who he was. I was pleasantly surprised to find out at the end of the chapter!
His head is in the British museum. So I don't care if the game was "CCP funded" or "CCP is forcing people to buy the game". If its popularity raises awareness about history and potentially even leads to the return of looted artifacts, then they have all the reason for such funding.
@@motherflerkentannhauser8152 and they hinted af, Lingji Budda aka the headless got a Scottish accent in the English version of the game, if you know the history, you know who he is at the very beginning.
@@avnidvyi Boddhisatva, not yet a Buddha.
“forcing people to buy the game”🤣What kind of fool could say such a stupid word
@@motherflerkentannhauser8152 Yes, the CCP forces people to buy the game. In order to make people play the game, the CCP even gave each player an RTX4090🤣
I absolutely love this game. I can't get enough of the visual art. It definitely is a mashup of games that we like and that have done well but there's something about it. This game pulls you in and makes you feel like it's just YOU and the GAME. Real old school. It's not an online smorgasbord of microtransactions. It's not an online store. I hope the west learns something from this but I'm sure they won't.
It brings you back to when games were actually complete games. Pure art.
It would do justice to award Black Myth the game of the Year award.
It's so interesting to see this game not be dumbed down and just tell the story for its intended local Chinese audience, and yet be appealing to an international audience. Even if many people are unfamiliar and probably a little confused at first, the slowly unravelling plot opens up like a traditional Chinese scroll and you eventually understand what is happening. I think the players can feel the passion and attention to detail on display. This reminds of the old days of great Hollywood movies, where it is intended for the American audience. Even though it is culturally specific, the acting, directing, production and script are so well crafted that it ends up being universally appreciated. Stop pandering to things other than the final product itself. DEVELOPERS： ake the best game you can, something that you'd want to play yourselves and you'll definitely have an audience.
If anything, what it does is encouraging a talk about what these scenes actually meant. You got people who are familiar with Journey to the West explaining the backstory to those who weren’t familiar via TH-cam videos, comments in TH-cam videos, social media, etc. A good discussion and sharing of a foreign culture is happening right now. This is a good thing.
Just wait for 4kids to come back from the dead to dub Black Myth Wukong
"Come on Jake Wukong, let's go fight Zoe Bailey and grab some burgers afterwards!"
Creators of these games are genuinely amazing they didn’t care about anything but making their game the best they absolutely could and they even refused changing stuff just because others wanted it 😭🙏it’s honestly worth every penny and the time it took to be released
As a Chinese video gamer, I would say plenty of our native players do not care whether BMW could get the GOTY or not anymore. GOTY is just like the “kasaya”that Master Jinchi chased for. If Game Science has to “bereft of that kasaya” to prove themselves, that’s just another meaningless and pathetic story.
Fyi the game got 15.5m copied sold so far, we gamers know what we actually need.
Beautifully said.
To put it simply, it means returning to what a game should be like, "fun", telling a touching story to the best of your ability on the basis of fun, and then using the scene to recreate the world you imagine
"Be it Heaven or Earth, I bow to no one, for I am The Great Sage, Heavens Equal."
Made me remember journey to the west
Bro said I'm him so long ago , I think he's the first
@@Abdullahkhan-mw2km Wukong was the original "Him". Bro saw Gods and thought "Now thats a challenge"
His name 齐天大圣 if directly translated is more like "the sage that rides the sky (referring to heaven court) in his crouch"
@@ZDY66666 I think 齊天 just means "at the level of" - hence "Great Sage Equalling Heaven". 齊 = 達到，跟什麼一般平：見賢思～。河水～腰深。
Wukong succeeds because it doesn't try to be something it's not. It's a good game, well polished, with a lot of content to enjoy. There's no agenda involved. It tells a story, sticks to the story, and doesn't bend things to include something that isn't natural to the setting. Of course the absolute lack of macro transactions and the other bullshit is an enormous plus. It looks good. It plays good. That's all that matters.
The headless singing spirit was pretty much my favorite NPC in the whole game. Amazing idea of them to have a character like that with super catchy tunes.
You would think a character that's headless would be beyond woke criticism: no gender, race, cultural, etc issues. But it didn't get any cookie points from the woke brigade who criticise everything.
The moment I saw him, I was figuring out how he could sing without the head. That is hilarious!
@@johnnyloh442 Actually, he can. Singing primarily starts from the stomach up through the larynx. Granted, he won’t be able to pronounce words; but he can adapt and make sounds. There’s no one way of singing and if you can make sounds, you are effectively singing.
If you read the literature on the monster carefully, you'll find that he is actually the biggest villain in this chapter.
I'm taking Black Myth Wukong slow for my first playthrough as I'm trying to experience everything the game has to offer. Truly a legendary game
Stop Asian hate but when there are only Asians in a product, journalists start hating
Yes, if you are an obedient sexual partner who fulfills all their desires and does the chores and cooking, then "stop asian hate", but if you seek equal right of working and education, merit-base admission of universities, you are canceled.
@@satyendra_shah what does that have to do with anything
nobody cares if you're a man or woman, non Asians hate Asians. what does "being obedient and sexual" have to do with anything
The westoids just want a monopoly on dictating what it means to be Asian.
Haven't seen a game with such amazing art in a while. The animations at the end of every chapter are just chef's kiss.
Starting playing this one I had my doubts. It shared a number of similarities to a Souls-like, but not quite. I was getting TRASHED! As I continued on though I started to get good. I began to level. I began to learn my moves and strengths and weaknesses. I learned HOW to level. This is no button masher. The in between chapter stories being in different mediums is brilliant! Truly a masterpiece so far (3 chapters in) with no sign of bottoming out or dropping the ball.
Thanks for speaking out what I feel about Black Myth Wukong!
i honestly think this is the best take on WUKONG so far
Fax. Bro speaks the truth
Dog when I defeated the black bear and saw that hand drawn animation I was flabbergasted cause of how beautiful it was plus the best example of the black myth experience is that forest level
You start off dealing with wolves and then boom giant baby man like bro what 😂
Black Myth Wukong will forever be known as the Chinese miracle. A game that should not have been possible given the circumstances around it but it is.
Yall get on here and say anything
@@bboykiddblack cus we can??
This game proves what is possible for the Chinese game industry, 1.3 Billion people and this is the first big single player game cuz they always focused on microtransactions to maximize profit. It’ll probably start a trend of big single player projects out of China
@@steamboy9538dontt put your baskets in china too much. they are still controlled by the CCP just be careful
@@bboykiddblack Like those woke game journalists? writing all kinds of lies they can make up
Funny thing is, Black Myth: Wukong is also a window into Indian mythology. Many theorise that the character of Wukong in the original myth was inspired by the Hindu monkey god, Hanuman. In Hindu mythology Hanuman is considered to be an avatar(incarnation) of Lord Shiva. Near the Melon Fields shrine in the game you can hear Shiva strotram playing in the background score. There's also the Mahavira Hall Shrine. Hanuman is also called Mahavir bikram bajrangi.
Yes of course. Chinese researchers did actually contribute Hanuman as the inspiration of Sun Wukong. And as we all know Journey to the West is about a group of monks going to India to study Buddhism, based on the real life story of Monk Xuan Zang who brought sutras back to Tang China and translated them until he died.
“Clocking in rather than locking in” hardest line ever
BMW = Made by gamers with passion & skill
Concord = The job the dev went to college for
Man I saw bmw and thought anout the car
Beep beep
Concord are student project that nobody care about
Even though I’ve never put stock in game awards, if this game doesn’t win best art direction solely based on those pre chapter cutscenes alone, it’ll show how out completely corrupt they are. The fact they’re all done in a different style and so beautiful/engaging just shows how talented the ppl in that studio are
Facts. Art direction in this game is an easy 10/10.
@@zuriyel5368 yeah it's the representative of traditional Chinese culture. If they don't know how to properly appreciate it, that's their problem.
Thank you for your intelligent, thoughtful, and passionate examinations of issues with Games, Gaming, and the worlds connected to it. So many times I've been assaulted by temper-tantrum emotional melt-downs that delivered their biases about a game, or game-mechanic without using a single full cogent sentence. Ever seen a 6 or 7 year old have a tantrum, basically just loose it because they were overwhelmed by their feelings? Made worse by a lack of being able to communicate WHY they're upset. Yeah, its not pretty at all, and these TH-cam/TicTok videos are made by adults who somehow feel entitled enough to win their "arguments" through sheer volume, and force of will. That is NOT passion. You examine carefully why something is presented as it is (in this case games!), and look for relevance thoughtfully. Wow! What a difference using brain cells make! Please keep using that powerful mind, keep examining these many topics that you cover so well. Its appreciated!
This game is made with a huge amount of love and passion. So glad they transcend language and culture barriers.
Also if you get to the hidden/true ending, and go over (and over) the story in your mind, you'll find what this game is really trying to tell. Many of the acts in the story will start looking questionable. That begs more thinking. Believe me they are like that for very good reasons. Same thing the original novel just many don't get it. Again, it's something resonates in most human hearts regardless of skin colour or body weight.
The whole game is itself a Journey. A player rushing through the game story is just like Wukong riding his cloud and flying west to Buddha, he hasn't learned much from the journey and is doomed to repeat the mistakes of his past (bad ending).
The True ending requires you to beat bosses that are not on the main path, go back to certain area that you couldn't access previously, win an epic battle and then go through all the story.
If you rush through the story, you will miss out on this tough but satisfying epic battle and also the understanding of the events that happened.
Body weight 😅
I started to feel playing game doesn't feel the same anymore, felt like the spark for gaming is going out, but Black Myth Wukong ignited my thirst for gaming again. This is the kind of game we need in the future!
It's like watching an artist interpret a work of art. I really enjoy your observation and interpretation of the details. Great video
Thanks. I’m so glad to watch your video and hear what you said. I live in Shanxi, and 29 scenes ( backgrounds, like the temples, Buddha, pagoda) of the game was shot from my province. I am very proud of that too. They did it nicely! ❤
no offense guys,the fact is China has over 5000 years history, the journey to the west is just a tip of the iceberg, after the success of wukong, there gonna be more games coming out that based on Chinese culture.
Game Science already mentioned wanting to do a Black Myth trilogy, with the other 2 games being based on 2 other ancient Chinese novels.
@@HelloKolla bro sign me tf up!!!
I don't mean to say that Asian developers are superior to Western developers in terms of creativity and techniques. The biggest lesson is the corrupt business model of "modern gaming" - live service, early access, you name it.
True "final products" like Black Myth: Wukong and Elden Ring are rare. What else can you name? What about the $130 "Star Wars Outlaws"?
That's it - the West keeps lowering the standard for final products, while Game Science delivered a real finished game. Learn it Ubisoft , would you?! Such a Shame.
Asian games company's make real games. Ever since back in the day. They will always be my favorite since Nintendo days.
Yo that stop animation cut scene threw me for a loop and the twist at the end made me a little sad lol
They even have a side question for that
动画想表达的是人的善良与邪恶往往只在人的一念之间。
The parables in this game are incredible.
Bro the side quest made me so happy though.
大概含义是男人从始到终都是凭借自己的想法来评判狐狸的，一念拯救，一念宰杀，瞬间变化只因为自己的某些念头。就像天庭对悟空的态度，无论是拯救还是攻击。这也是现在很多人、政府、团体会做出让人讨厌事情的原因。
Many thanks - enjoyed your video so much. And what you did was such fun! I know this Wukong thing is ancient Chinese mythology but also based on Chinese Zen/Tao/Philosophy. To appreciate the deeper meanings hidden behind all those details in the game, one could check out the Chinese novel “A journey to the west” or the Chinese Zen Book “How to be Happy: the Wisdom to Attain Happiness and Success by Constructing an Invincible Mind”.
Another point I feel like is overlooked is that wukong had a pre-existing narrative to guide it… which it did not deviate from for the sake of doing so. We don’t need a rework or reinvention of the wheel all the time (if at all). It’s good to see story telling respected again.
I agree. For example, the last few dozen adaptations of King Arthur have all been so different from the original, that doing a faithful adaptation of the original would feel new and fresh. It's also why we don't like Zack Snyder's Superman.
18:55 hit SO CLOSE to home for me. I love playing video games and supporting developers on their creations, but I’m not rich, and I honestly feel the industry has gotten out of hand with the expectation that every game needs to be a constant money generating machine. Baldurs Gate 3, Hades 1 and 2, Black Myrh, - these are just some examples of games that have done gaming right in my view, provide an amazing experience without asking you to continue to pay for things that the game NATURALLY should give us.
Remember that IGN gave Concord a controversial 7/10.....western game journos been having temper trantrums for ages now, trying to fight their decline into irrelevance.
The whole divesity stick is The Witcher all over; polish company, game after books from polish author about polish history and mythology. Its the intolerant racists that scream the loudest when something unique comes out trying to share its culture with the world. Why cant we accept history and diversity for what it is instead of forcing it in everywhere?
Make a BMW about indian mythology, give us a game about Native Americans, Maya, the Inca, Zulu, Maori,......there is so much diversity and history out there that could be made into a just as great experience, all each lacking mordern diversity but still being able to resonate with all gamers that enjoy good stories and games.
It is made all the worse that they muddy and discredit genuine issues.
They make it about race when there is genuine concern in the overall goals of the companies who control these games (Tencent and by extension the CCP).
But the story is instead focused on the game company who is largely just trying to make a cool fucking game. Nothing is going to be to everyone’s liking and that’s a good thing
(I will say that the sexism and harassment culture in China is a genuine issue and Is another example of real issues being brushed aside for stories that aggressively pretend to care about progressive issues by trying to address them all in one go!)